Author's note: Hey guys! I know I haven't been really active with my writing on , but I guess it's just because Uni has kept me quite busy since the beginning of the academic year. Hopefully after exams end I'll be able to continue all of my stories during this long and hopefully free summer! This story is all about Elena and Damon (althought you'll be seeing a lot of Damon later, so please don't be upset for a few chapters until I bring everything into place). But, it takes place in the real world since I'm out of ideas about supernatural events that might happen to them anymore - TVD has made literally everything happen. So it's gonna be only Damon and Elena in the real world with other characters from Vampire Diaries popping in and out as well. A final note regarding this chapter - my next chapters will not be all like this, dialogues will be much more than present as soon as I get the action rolling. So bear with me until then! I guess that's all for my big intro, I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries. My story centres around the characters of the TV show that belong to their rightful owners (TV script by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec) and of Vampire Diaries series written by L.J. Smith. I do not intend any infringement upon any music that might inspire chapter titles or parts of my story.
CHAPTER 1 - PROLOGUE
I was sitting on a couch in the waiting room of an exquisite New Jersey babysitting company. Across the small coffee table, on the other side of the room, sat a freckled girl, not older than 16. She was probably waiting to see Mrs. Dobbs about another mind-blowing, fantastically well-paid summer job. After all, that's what they all wanted – sky-high salaries, few working hours and a nice, modern, wealthy family who would eventually hire them as their new nanny. I watched her as she was anxiously fidgeting in her chair, turning her head once in a while to stare at the maple-read door that would be opening every minute now.
Yes, she had it all – the decent look of a respectable young lady, the intoxicating wide commercial smile, a huge portfolio with references from probably over 30 families. And, last but not least, the talent to be whatever the client wanted – childish, bitchy or the calm, perfect nanny. This is the world I was a part of for 24 hours a day, seven days a week - a world which from the outside never seems more than a dull, horrific, bad-paid job.
Being a part of it, I must admit that it isn't as bad as it seems. At least not for someone like me. You see, I was just like that girl standing on the other side of the room – although I wasn't physically even close to the perfection she had been blessed with, in the inside I was the same when I started – alone, ambitious and with no other possibilities. It wasn't a career that most women chose by themselves. It was either because of financial need or because of no other options. I had had them both when I started a year and a half before.
I had been lucky, to say the least. Legally, I wasn't even an American citizen at that time, given the fact that I hadn't received my visa. I had had to drop out of university before even having the chance to begin my courses. I had only 350 dollars in my pocket at that time and no place to live in. I had to spend the whole summer of 2010 working as a maid in a wealthy Mexican's house in the daytime and as a waitress in a fancy bar at night.
After the life I was used to having at home, this experience was my own personal hell. I barely got through that summer alive. After being dumped on the streets by my tenant, I swore that I would fight more than ever. Of course, I could have been a thousand times better off than these miserable jobs, but who would have hired me on a time of economic crisis without a degree or proof that I was studying in order to have a better future?
A high-school diploma meant nothing at those times. Especially if you were a foreigner. I remember that I was one day sitting on a bench in the park, contemplating my life and wondering what I should do to get out of that mess. It was one of the rare occasions when I was actually talking to God and asking for his help – I was desperate. I guess that he heard me that day, because a few minutes later I bumped into a woman on the streets. Turns out that she wasn't just any kind of woman – she was wearing one of those Dolce & Gabbanna gorgeous white suits for working ladies, big black glasses and high-heels which I used to wear only at parties as a teenager. Her expression turned from anger due to my clumsiness (I had roughly bumped into her by mistake) to surprise as she was assessing my outfit and looked at me from head to toe. I never even had the chance to say how sorry I was, cause she silenced me with one quick hand movement. I have no idea what she saw in me that day and whether she read my mind or not, but she asked me if I needed a job.
That was Mrs. Dobbs back then – the successful English business woman, who owned a small private, but extremely successful babysitting company. I still look at her as my guardian angel, sent from above to save me. She offered me a room in their dorms, fed me and tested me to see if I was good enough for the job. It turned out that I was a perfect match with 'what the company was looking for'- the "perfect nanny".
When she offered me a place at her firm I just couldn't say no. It was just too good to be true. And so it started… From a childish, naive teenager, with no care I the world, I turned into a serious, respectable young lady, who no longer had the liberty of doing what she wanted. Compared to my former jobs, the salary was better, the conditions sometimes worse – after all, children are harder to work with than full-grown adults. At the beginning, you usually get different part-time jobs at families who only need your help once in a while. That is so that you get accustomed to all of the process.
The best thing about the job was that I spent most of the time with children, who I was truly crazy about. The worst part of the job was having to cope with the parents' high expectations and the children's mixed feelings towards me. But things got better after a while. Problems seemed to disappear, I was getting along with my regular clients and the paycheck was constant and finally satisfying my needs.
In this branch, when you get to the part where flawless recommendations from all your clients come pouring down, then you know it's time for a promotion. You might be obviously wondering what kind of a promotion could a babysitter even receive. I actually had the surprise of my life when I found out that I would no longer be working part-time for more households at a time. My boss had received a special request from a wealthy client who needed the services of a full-time nanny. It turned out that I was that nanny. I was completely stunned – girls usually waited even years in a row to get such an opportunity in our world. And here I was, no better than the others, already with such a big responsibility on the way. It took me a while to decide, but after thinking of my dorm room and modest lifestyle I decided to take the job and not look back. I wanted an apartment – a small and cheap one, but wanted something for my own personal use.
Bonnie, my only friend from the agency, was excited to hear about my promotion and supported me one hundred percent in my decision. At that time she was still having a hard time coping with working at six different families a week – a mouthful. My new family, the Lockwoods, were absolutely amazing – they were both working at important companies in town and were most of the time at work, which left me alone with their two children, Anna and Tyler, who were both in primary school. The situation went smoothly for about five months, when their father suddenly lost his job. That was when I realized that he was the one bringing the biggest amount of money home. However, his job loss didn't affect mine. In spite of my employers' efforts to find Mr. Lockwood a new job, the economic crisis offered nothing for the ones in need. So, Mr. Lockwood had to stay at home while his wife worked hard to sustain their family.
Mr. Lockwood seemed a very calm person to me, always good-willed and easy to please. However, the situation started driving him crazy and so he became more upset and angrier as the days passed. He never had a problem with me, but he started to radically change his behaviour towards his wife, without any sane explanation. In a while I could hear them arguing about their difficult situation on a daily basis. It was worse that they would always do it in front of the kids. The poor darlings, they would beg me to take them away from home when their parents ended up in the same room. It didn't help either that Mr. Lockwood was always more attentive with me than his wife, and soon enough I was starting to receive jealous looks from Mrs. Lockwood.
I tried to back away for a little while and I started avoiding my male boss so as not to cause a scene with his wife. Things were finally starting to cool down when I one day found my employer in the children's room, waiting for me to arrive from my apartment. He had deliberately taken the children to school earlier in order to catch me home alone. As I realized what was happening, my first instinct was to run. In a moment of complete craziness, I tried to be reasonable about the whole thing. I tried to convince myself that I was just being paranoid. After all, he was my calm, serious, nice boss.
So I stayed put next to the door, hoping that I was just having a midday headache. Bad move… Out of nowhere, he unexpectedly jumped from his seat and caught me in his arms faster than I could get out the door. It wasn't hard to understand what he wanted from me. I was truly appalled. He told me that I knew how crazy I was about him and that he had had the same feelings for me since I first set foot on his doorstep. I tried to explain, to reason with him, to tell him how wrong he really was, but it failed. Struggling wasn't helpful either since he was stronger than me, although I did try to remember the basic survival stuff in case you get attacked. Instead of fighting with me, he started caressing me and whispering all sorts of things in my ears. He had it all figured out – how we would keep our affair a secret and that he knew I was only lying to torture him and make him love me more.
And then, out of the blue, he tried to kiss me. God must have probably heard my prayers again that day, 'cause his wife barged in the room and caught us before he could say or do anything worse. But my relief was short-lived, given the compromising position in which she had caught us both – she seemed as if she could rip my head off, but, instead, she started fighting with her husband. That was my cue to leave. Besides the obvious fact that I was fired for 'flirting and luring her husband' Mrs. Lockwood made a huge scandal at the agency, where she demanded that I be thrown out in the streets where I belonged. Once again, my life seemed to fall into thousands of pieces. I could already see myself wandering on the streets with no future left after such a mess.
I was planning to quit in order to avoid the shame of seeing Mrs. Dobbs' disappointed look on her face. Fortunately, after telling her the entire story, my boss believed me instead of the neurotic Mrs. Lockwood, but only God knows why. She kept all of the scandal under the rugs, away from the media and dealt with Mrs. Lockwood's desire of getting back at me. Bonnie helped me as well to recover after that wretched event. She turned out to be a life-saver, spending all her free time in my apartment and taking care of me as much as she could. I acted all brave and tough in front of my boss and Bonnie, but I was a true wreck on the inside.
All of these events happened six months ago, in November 2011. Since then, I went back to the part-time jobs at my old families and to my excellent references. The situation went on this way until I received an urgent call from my boss telling me to come down to the office on this Monday morning. I didn't understand quite well what was so important, but it must have been a special request from a client. So here I was, waiting to see what would happen next. While I remembered my entire story, I didn't even realize that the young freckled girl had entered my boss's office. It wasn't until she came out with a huge arrogant smile on her face that I realized I had already lost the job, before even knowing what it was really about.
As I was beginning to sulk in, my attention was drawn from Mrs. Dobbs' assistant, Greta, who called my name, asking me to please enter the office. I slowly got out of my seat, surprised and disappointed that she wouldn't even give me a chance at this better, special job. But could I really hope to receive such a good job given my previous experience? Of course that Mrs. Dobbs would prefer somebody without such unfortunate records as mine, someone new, fresh off the market. As I was trying to convince myself of the obvious, I couldn't help but feel hurt as I passed my opponent.
How could I deny it? She had won…
As much as I hate asking for reviews, I really need to know what you guys think, so I'll be waiting for your opinions :)